Delegate Early

Use this skill when a task can be split into parallel streams or when the main context risks ballooning. The top-level Codex remains the lead; subagents are assistants.

Goals

• •Conserve primary context by offloading research/review/planning.
• •Improve throughput with parallel subagent streams.
• •Capture delegation evidence for auditability.

When to spawn

• •Before deep reading/analysis to avoid bloating context.
• •When new ambiguity appears or scope changes.
• •For independent streams (research, review, planning, edge cases).

Task slicing heuristic

• •Identify 2–4 independent streams with minimal shared context.
• •Prefer streams like: research, review, spec-check, edge-cases.

Required conventions

• •Use MCP_RUNNER_TASK_ID=<task-id>-<stream> for subagents.
• •Record manifest paths and summarize findings in the main run.
• •Run node scripts/delegation-guard.mjs before review handoff to verify delegation evidence.

Minimal delegation workflow

1. •Name streams and write 1–2 sentence goals for each.
2. •Spawn subagents with clear, bounded prompts.
3. •Wait for subagent completion; retrieve manifest evidence and summarize findings into the main plan.
4. •Proceed with implementation.

Prompt patterns

• •Research: “Find X, cite Y, return 3 bullets + risks.”
• •Review: “Inspect files A/B for regressions; list issues by severity.”
• •Planning: “Draft a 3–5-step plan, call out unknowns.”

Escalation rules

• •If delegation is impossible, set DELEGATION_GUARD_OVERRIDE_REASON and document it in the task checklist.

Subagent summary format

• •Findings: Key results and conclusions from the subagent run
• •Risks: Issues, blockers, or concerns
• •Open questions: Unresolved items requiring follow-up
• •Evidence: Manifest path (e.g., .runs/<task-id>-<stream>/cli/<timestamp>/manifest.json)